• TAM team demonstrates BUILDING STRONG throughout COVID-19 pandemic

    USACE, including the Transatlantic Middle East District (TAM) has continued their on-going mission while also assisting the nation and numerous federal agencies in this time of crisis, BUILDING STRONG through deeds, not words.
  • Corps to resume Natomas levee work, close Garden Highway on April 23

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will resume major levee improvement construction in the Lower Natomas Basin beginning April 23, 2020, closing a portion of Garden Highway to all traffic.
  • Corps awards $7.6 million border barrier contract

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers South Pacific Border District awarded a $7.6 million contract modification April 15 to Fisher Sand & Gravel Co., Dickinson, North Dakota, for approximately 800 linear feet of border wall construction and associated infrastructure in Yuma, Arizona.
  • Corps’ Omaha District spotlights energy efficient, environmentally sustainable headquarters for 50th anniversary of Earth Day

    Built in 1958, the original Zorinsky Building, home to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District’s headquarters, was erected before the modern world embraced the environmental movement. Since the first Earth Day in 1970, renovations to the 432,000 square-foot building managed by the Government Services Administration have been implemented based on the standards and criteria of the U.S. Green Council’s Sustainability Program to make the building more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: The Forefront : A Review of ERDC Publications, Spring 2020

    Abstract: The Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is the premier civil works engineering and environmental sciences research and development arm of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). As such, it partners with the Army, Department of Defense (DoD), federal agencies, and civilian organizations to help solve our Nation’s most challenging problems in civil and military engineering, geospatial sciences, water resources, and environmental sciences. A special government knowledge center, ERDC Information Technology Laboratory’s Information Science and Knowledge Management (ISKM) Branch is critical to ERDC’s mission, fulfilling research requirements by offering a variety of editing and library services to advance the creation, dissemination, and curation of ERDC and USACE research knowledge. Serving as the publishing authority for the ERDC, ISKM publishes all ERDC technical publications to the Digital Repository Knowledge Core, sends a copy to the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) and creates a press release about each publication on the ERDC website. The Forefront seeks to provide an additional mechanism for highlighting some of our technical publications to the ERDC, USACE, Army, and DoD communities. This publication also encourages those outside ERDC to contact us about using ERDC editing services. For more information regarding the reports highlighted in this publications or others that ERDC researchers’ have created, please contact the ISKM virtual reference desk at erdclibrary@ask-a-librarian.info or visit the ISKM’s online repository, Knowledge Core, at https://erdc-library.erdc.dren.mil/ .
  • Corps Encourages Responsible Recreation for Earth Day

    Although the 50th anniversary of Earth Day is taking place during a worldwide pandemic, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District recreation sites still provide visitors an opportunity to enjoy nature responsibly.
  • Vicksburg District to keep boat ramps, nature trails open at Mississippi lakes and provides new boating requirements

    VICKSBURG, Miss. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Vicksburg District will keep its boat ramps, nature trails and fishing areas at Arkabutla, Enid, Sardis and Grenada lakes open in north Mississippi. Arkabutla, Sardis, Grenada and Enid lakes are not included in the recreation areas that will be reopened through the governor’s April 17 order, which has allowed select state beaches, parks, reservoirs and other areas to reopen on a limited basis. The Vicksburg District’s visitor centers, interpretive centers, museums, field offices and select recreation site attractions, including campgrounds and beaches, across Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas have been closed to the public since March 20. These areas will remain closed until further notice.
  • JJ Mayes Wildlife Trace closure at Wallisville Lake Project

    WALLISVILLE, Texas – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District will close the J.J. Mayes Wildlife Trace at the Wallisville Lake Project on April 23 in order to improve the west non-overflow dam road to increase public safety.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: SPDAT Rainfall and Streamflow Analysis at Mobile, Alabama

    ABSTRACT: This Dredging Operations and Environmental Research (DOER) program technical note (TN) seeks to explain how the Storm and Precipitation Dredging Analysis Tool (SPDAT) can be used to determine dredging response to varying rainfall levels at a given site. This TN will focus on the historical dredging records in the Mobile Bay Ship Channel and rainfall levels in that area. The analysis presented in this TN will form the basis for how the tool methodology can be used to and compare rainfall and dredging records to determine response trends at other sites. The results from the tool analysis can inform dredging managers about how much dredging may be expected under similar rainfall or tropical storm conditions for future cycles.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: Analysis of Nearshore Placement of Sediments at Ogden Dunes, Indiana

    ABSTRACT: The harbor structures/shoreline armoring on the southern Lake Michigan shoreline interrupt sand migration. Ogden Dunes, Indiana, and the nearby Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore observed shoreline erosion due to engineered structures associated with Burns Waterway Harbor (east of Ogden Dunes) impeding natural east-to-west sediment migration. To remedy this, USACE placed over 450,000 cubic meters (m3) of dredged material post-2006 in the nearshore of Ogden Dunes. However, the effectiveness of nearshore placements for shoreline protection and littoral nourishment is not fully established. To improve nearshore placement effectiveness, USACE monitored the June/July 2016 placement and subsequent movement of 107,000 m3 of dredged material in the nearshore region at Ogden Dunes. This involved an extensive monitoring scheme (three bathymetry surveys, and two acoustic Doppler current profiler deployments), a Coastal Modeling System (CMS) numerical model of the changes following placement, and a prediction of sediment transport direction using the Sediment Mobility Tool (SMT). The SMT-predicted sediment migration direction was compared to observations. Observations indicated that between 10/11/2016 and 11/15/2016 the centroid of the sediment above the pre-placement survey moved 17 m onshore. These observations agreed with SMT predictions — onshore migration under storm and typical wave conditions. CMS accurately reproduced the hydrodynamic features.